Which rider is underrated/overrated?

[Jspear]

Underrated - Wiggins (gets bashed too much around here), Mark Cavendish (he's coming back next year. ), Uran: good climber, excellent time trialist...don't think enough people recognize that.

Sagan and Froome were both way overrated (in 2013) but now they are too underrated.

Overrated - Nibali (mainly since July - not taking away from his win, just talking about his fans here), Richie Porte: he is overrated by his own team....I don't think to many people here take him seriously.

I think Quintana is over hyped...possibly overrated but definitely over hyped.

Many more....just a couple that come to mind.

 

[The Hitch]

A lot of the names mentioned are riders clearly in some decline. And it's a difficult question anyway because with the exception of a few, riders levels fluctuate massively. Froome abd Wiggins had potential GOAT seasons interspersed with cobo2010 level ones. Does that make them overrated or underrated. Who the **** knows. Some claim they are the riders of 2012 and previously never knew how to train. Others look at it the other way (cineteq) and claim it was all a fluke due to crashes etc.

Hesjedal has been Crap most of his career but had one awessome gt. I used to have guys like gadret and DuPont as underated but even the worst analysis of those riders from 2 years ago would overrate where they are now.

The few consistent riders there were, I can give my opinions on.


Cancellara was overrated as a tter. He had one insane performance on the level of 1993(?when he caught like 6 riders) big Mig performance, and that was the one in mendrisio where he won both the gold and in a way the silver for Larsson. But he was never a lock for long tts, often got beat and even when not it was often close.

I don't think canc was underrated in classics. Not since 2010 anyway. If anything the boonen fans were in denial about how good he was and desperately wanted to persuade themselves (through posting it repeatedly on here) that cancellara was just getting lucky, that he hadn't improved, that boonen was having everything go wrong for him every year and that was stopping him for beating canc easily.

Contador. Not overrated. Even though he is rated so highly, the truth us he is just that good. 1 poor, in some ways pathetic by his standards season, but at the end of the day dude has performed year round for almost a decade and not just performed, but won in spectacular style and surprised time and tine again

Evans - slightly overrated. I mean that because on a number of occasions he has entered gts as a favourite and not performed, particularly in recent years when he shouldn't have been a favourite, but also before.

Nibali- overrated. The argument every year for Nibali from his fans has been - but he is better this year than he was before so we shouldn't count any of those. But truth is, I still haven't seen him go mano a mano with an elite rider and triumph. And he is treated like he were contadors equal sometimes. There have been 6 riders who have stood below Nibali on a gt podium when he won. 5 of those were standing them for the first time, and only 1 of those has made a gt podium again after.

Valverde- underrated by those who refuse to count podiums as indicative of talent. By some measurements he has been the all round best rider in the sport this millennium.

Boonen- difficult to say because for the most part he has had it more difficult this decade and is getting older. Maybe those of us who don't think Hell contend for a monument again are underrating him. As this board wasn't around back then, I have no idea what it was like as far as internet fans goes back when he was truly dominant.

Andy -overrated by ppl like myself who kept thinking he could come back. Perhaps the best example of my point above regarding how cyclists can turn into totally different riders. Something(s) happened in and around 2011. His early 20s form was never going to return and he provably knew it.

 

[roundabout]

How and why is Nieve underrated?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Nieve is overrated, but I don't think hes hyped much.

 

[Nick C.]

Underrated or at least under the radar career: Daniele Bennati. When Cav first started winning GT stages it was Bennati he was trading wins off with at the Giro. He has won on the Champs Elysses in 2007 as well as taking stages at

 

[Ruudz0r]

Costa overrated? In what world!? He never makes the list of top names to win a race in this forum, few believed, during the race, that he would win Suisse, despite having been second or third in the race poll; He gets little to no attention by the press, even during his WC reign...

He was mentioned by several people in the TdF 2013 that he could have podiumed if he had a free role.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Underrated: Kittel

 

[Miburo]

Underrated: Kittel

The media considers him a superstar, almost everyone here in this forum will say he's the best sprinter, maybe some still think cav is better (let's see next year)

So how is he underrated? Knowing this guy will drop at a 2%hill, and all the praise he receives, how can such a guy be underrated?

Nvm you're prob trolling, i fell for it

 

[Bushman]

Rui Costa is not underrated, definately overrated (guess that can happen when you win the wc).

I dont agree with anyone that Navardauskas is underrated either. He is called an outsider or dark horse for a lot of big races (fx the wc) but he never seems to deliver in the big races. (2013 Giro was very impressive though, but apart from that he has only delivered in smaller races)

 

[Bushman]

Underrated: Kittel

I agree he used to be at least. Until after the Tour this year im quite convinced most people thought Cavendish was the fastest sprinter, "he just had to hit top shape".

 

[El Pistolero]

Wasn't Kittel dropped on 3 flat stages in this year's Tour? What a joke. That earns millions lol...

 

[Red Rick]

I agree he used to be at least. Until after the Tour this year im quite convinced most people thought Cavendish was the fastest sprinter, "he just had to hit top shape".

It's not like Cavendish got beaten at every single sprint against Kittel

 

[Hugo Koblet]

The media considers him a superstar, almost everyone here in this forum will say he's the best sprinter, maybe some still think cav is better (let's see next year)

So how is he underrated? Knowing this guy will drop at a 2%hill, and all the praise he receives, how can such a guy be underrated?

Nvm you're prob trolling, i fell for it

I'm dead serious. Look at his results. Look at his H2H vs Cavendish. Most people think Kittel vs Cavendish is a tight battle, but in reality it's not close at all. When some still think it's close between him and Cavendish, Kittel is underrated.

 

[El Pistolero]

I'm dead serious. Look at his results. Look at his H2H vs Cavendish. Most people think Kittel vs Cavendish is a tight battle, but in reality it's not close at all. When some still think it's close between him and Cavendish, Kittel is underrated.

He got dropped on a flat stage. A flat stage!

Cyclists like that shouldn't even be winning stages imo. I'd put a hill in every flat stage if I were in charge.

 

[BigMac]

He got dropped on a flat stage. A flat stage!

Cyclists like that shouldn't even be winning stages imo. I'd put a hill in every flat stage if I were in charge.

I agree. If I was older, I'm sure Kittel would make my white hairs go transparent. He and his kind drive me mad.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

He got dropped on a flat stage. A flat stage!

Cyclists like that shouldn't even be winning stages imo. I'd put a hill in every flat stage if I were in charge.

Yeah, I agree. No way they should be able to win stages then. But whose fault it is that they do?

 

[Gloin22]

Yeah, I agree. No way they should be able to win stages then. But whose fault it is that they do?

Well Kittel if he bothers can get over hills

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=25617

 

[The Blues]

Rui Costa is not underrated, definately overrated (guess that can happen when you win the wc).

I dont agree with anyone that Navardauskas is underrated either. He is called an outsider or dark horse for a lot of big races (fx the wc) but he never seems to deliver in the big races. (2013 Giro was very impressive though, but apart from that he has only delivered in smaller races)

Considering his impressive sprinting results in the Tour this year, he is definitely underrated as far as sprinting goes (e. g. never really mentioned in sprint stages, but he got 3rd on the Champs). And let's not forget that he won a stage by going solo plus has some good results from Québec, Montréal, and Ponferrada this autumn (respectively 3rd, 4th, and 15th). From what I have seen, he is rarely spoken of as someone with an actual chance of winning big races, so I can understand why some people consider him underrated.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Most overrated rider on this forum: NIBALI (as much as one may like him as a rider, he is often compared to Contador, which is just ....)

Overrated in general: Quintana, Kwiatkowski, Aru, Stybar, D & TMartin, Pinot, Kelderman (overrated big time), Horner (it's a humor thing mostly, I guess), Mollema (He just isn't the GT rider, that many makes him to), Arredondo, Démare, Boonen...

Fairly rated: Contador (how anyone can call him overrated given his superb season, I do not know ), Cancellara (had one sub-par season this year. Otherwise cannot be overrated), Majka, Degenkolb, Kittel, Cav, Kristoff, Gilbert and many more

Underrated: Valverde, Fuglsang, TJVG (used to be overrated), JRod, Rogers, Peraud, Uran, Froome (slightly), G Caruso, Costa (he has been a little forgotten this year despite wearing WC stripes), Jungels, Wiggo

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I remember it's not so long ago people were chastising anybody who thought Cavendish wouldn't break every record going in terms of sprinting, because he was so unstoppable comparatively young (as opposed to relative late bloomers like Ale-Jet), and would stay on top of the sprinting pile for the best part of a decade. But we're already at the stage where Cavendish is needing to win using smarts in the top races, because there are riders with more pure speed than him. I always argued that I knew that would happen, and just as Ale-Jet was the one sprinter who was able to get one over on Cav with any consistency, Cav would need to learn the tricks like Petacchi had to keep getting the wins when the next big sprinting thing hit the scene. I just didn't think it would happen this soon.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Still, Cavendish had ages with only an old Petacchi to compete with more or less. (And the occasional Greipel after they parted ways).

On the general topic. Of course it is subjective in a lot of ways, I guess it would be possible to find out what riders are over or underrated in the public opinion.

For example Ben Swift seemed to be overrated and underrated at the same time during this years season. Pretty much depending if you actually knew what he is in principal capable of or not. This working both directions of course. I can't remember a hilly sprinter type of rider being so dismissed of a chance of winning and being called a favorite, when he was just an okay guess for a top 10 placing. Maybe my memory is flawed but he's one of the prime examples coming to my mind right now - of the riders fighting for wins.
And no I don't think this is a SkyFans/NonSkyFans thing at all.

How people can say Contador is overrated is beyong me. It might only be for a slighty wrong percetption of his amount of stage wins, which I guess is the lowest of any 6 time GT Winner ever. Otherwise simply not delivering 2 times when it was expected (2011 and 2013) never made anyone overrated.

I do think Evans status as a favourite got overrated sometimes, but he used to be a GT enigma for a while anyway and with more luck or/and a decent team (which he never had) he'd be a multiple GT winner. Besides that he's still one of the best allrounders in the last decade.

Who is overrated though is Sagan - the kid is just plain stupid, you can't make up for this with your legs. And not being liked in the peloton is also a "quality" being taken into consideration when it comes to winning expediencies. But maybe I am to harsh on him as I truly dislike the tool.

 

[Dr. Juice]

Still, Cavendish had ages with only an old Petacchi to compete with more or less. (And the occasional Greipel after they parted ways).

And quite a bit headache the old Ale-Jet gave him . For me Cipollini was Nr. 1 in pure speed and progression with only Petacchi coming (very) close during his golden years (2003 - 2006 fracture).

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

I don't think canc was underrated in classics. Not since 2010 anyway. If anything the boonen fans were in denial about how good he was and desperately wanted to persuade themselves (through posting it repeatedly on here) that cancellara was just getting lucky, that he hadn't improved, that boonen was having everything go wrong for him every year and that was stopping him for beating canc easily.

I don't understand what you mean? It's crystal clear that Boonen would have easily beaten Cancellara, if things went his way.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

And quite a bit headache the old Ale-Jet gave him . For me Cipollini was Nr. 1 in pure speed and progression with only Petacchi coming (very) close during his golden years (2003 - 2006 fracture).

I always wonder: isn't there any good data on the top speed of the sprinters?

 

[Carols]

Underrated: Valverde, Nibali, Uran, Dan Martin

Overrated: Moser, Kwiatowski, Quintana, Hesjedal, Wiggins, Sagan, Mollema, Nico Roche, Porte, Horner, Costa, Rolland